The Australian is reporting that our largest village operator has won a host of bids from international groups keen to invest in its retirement living business, including US private equity firm Blackstone, China’s Cindat Capital Management and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Lendlease has put up a 50 per cent stake in its village portfolio, which the paper says is expected to sell for around $1B.
Lendlease would continue to operate the business, with the new partner to drive its capital growth according to their spokesperson.
Blackstone has already invested in the retirement living sector, sinking $150M into John Wood’s National Lifestyle Villages in 2014 but this would prove a much larger investment for the equity firm, which also purchased Lendlease’s five NZ retirement villages last year.
The winning bidder will be joining Lendlease as they seek to return to aged care. As we covered here, the operator was the big winner in the most recent Aged Care Approvals Round, winning a huge 756 places at sites co-located with its villages.
